Seleucus ( ''Seleukos'') was in 30 BC a commandant of the eastern Egyptian border-fortress

Pelusium Pelusium (Ancient Egyptian: ; /, romanized: , or , romanized: ; ; ; ; ) was an important city in the eastern extremes of Egypt's Nile Delta, to the southeast of the modern Port Said. It became a Roman provincial capital and Metropolitan arc ...

. In the final stage of the decisive war between

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

and

Octavian Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...

for the sole rule of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

Antony and his lover, the Egyptian queen

Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

, withdrew after their defeat in the

Battle of Actium The Battle of Actium was a naval battle fought between Octavian's maritime fleet, led by Marcus Agrippa, and the combined fleets of both Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC in the Ionian Sea, near the former R ...

(September 2, 31 BC) to Egypt. In summer of 30 BC Octavian's troops advanced from the West and the East against Egypt. At that time Seleucus was the commandant of Pelusium. But this eastern border-fortress surrendered so fast that Seleucus was suspected of having treacherously handed it over. The ancient biographer

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

also mentions the rumour that Seleucus had given it up with the consent of Cleopatra, but this assertion is doubted in the modern research. In any case the queen handed over Seleucus's wife and children to Antony for execution. If the family members of Seleucus were really executed is unknown.Plutarch, ''Antony'' 74.1-2; compare

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

(''Roman history'' 51.9.5-6), who represents the treacherous surrender of Pelusium at the orders of Cleopatra as certain and gives for this as one motive, that the queen allegedly believed in love declarations of Octavian. There is also no information about the further fate of Seleucus.

Notes

References

* Michael Grant: ''Kleopatra''. Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1998, , p. 304. *Christoph Schäfer: ''Kleopatra''. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006, , p. 240 with note. 108. *Felix Staehelin: ''Seleukos 14''. In: ''

Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft The Pauly encyclopedias or the Pauly-Wissowa family of encyclopedias, are a set of related encyclopedias on Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman classical studies, topics and scholarship. The first of these, or (1839–1852), was begun by compiler A ...

'', vol. II A,1, Stuttgart 1921, col. 1247. {{DEFAULTSORT:Seleucus 1st-century BC births 1st-century BC deaths Ptolemaic generals 1st-century BC Greek people Pelusium